Blueground | Furnished Apartments New York — Local services in New York

STAY AWAY unless you want to get ripped off, not be refunded properly, and be provided with horrendous customer service! This was by far the worst experience I've ever had renting an apartment! They will rob you of your money, charge you a premium, and provide no customer service to help you out!! BLUEGROUND IS A BUNCH OF SCAMMERS!!!

Mounting issues: LOCKED OUT OF APARTMENT FOR 1st 1.5 WEEKS!!! Paid Blueground $7500/mo for a 1-bedroom, 500 sq. ft apartment for a 2-month stay in Soho, NYC. They took the entire payment at once for the full two months ($15K) and provided no other options to pay on a monthly basis. Upon moving in at 4PM, there was no lock box to be found in the location Blueground indicated it would be. Turns out Blueground never placed a lockbox for me to be able to even access my building/apartment! I was standing in the streets of NYC with 4 large suitcases in the pouring rain with terrible off-shore customer service and they could not get me into the building for over 4 hours thereafter after being rerouted and hung up on several times. The local building manager (non-Blueground employee) let me into my apartment finally for me to move-in. As I still did not have keys to access my apartment, Blueground did not provide keys to a luxury/expensive apartment I was paying for until the 11th day after check-in! That is just absolutely absurd. I had to resort to calling the local building manager to let me in and out of my building/apartment in the interim for those 1.5 weeks+ (where I was charged $40/entry access!). And all Blueground was willing to do to compensate me for services not being rendered and NOT HAVING ACCESS TO MY OWN APARTMENT for the first 1.5+ weeks was a measly $100. That is just absolutely dumb-founding to me!!

COCKROACHES in my luxury apartment the second day there. For $7500/mo, you would expect that there is a level of cleanliness upheld which was abhorrent to find cockroaches in this expensive Blueground apartment. They were not willing to provide any monetary compensation for the cockroach issue!!

The TOILET IS UNUSABLE and not up to code! The city code demands that there is at least 24 inches from the front of the toilet to any wall/obstruction--there is

We rented a short-term, furnished apartment near Lincoln Center from Blueground (via VRBO) as we were having major repairs done to our own apartment and needed to move out for the duration of the work. Late in the afternoon the day before move-in, as the movers were finishing putting all our possessions into boxes, we were informed via email that Bluegound had to cancel the reservation because the previous renter had damaged the property. We were given two alternatives, one of which was way too small for my family, so that left the other.

The apartment itself wasn't bad - a reasonably spacious two-bedroom in a full-service building farther up on the Upper West Side (The Sagamore). There were some problems upon arrival, however, the first of which was that Blueground only provided one key and there were three of us. Now, the place we'd originally rented had keyless entry and we were all given codes. When I called Blueground to ask for extra copies of the key, I was told "sure," but that there was a fee in excess of $100. I said that wasn't fair, as the place I'd originally secured didn't require a physical key, and that I'd had been moved through no fault of my own. I was told that they'd get back to me after talking to their team about the issue. I never heard back.

There was damage to the apartment when I arrived, which I photographed and sent to Blueground through the portal, as I didn't want to get charged for something that wasn't my fault. It took a full week to get a response. Thankfully, the staff at the Sagamore was fantastic, and after that I just skipped Blueground entirely and talked to the building staff directly. They took care of everything within 24 hours - replacing a non-functioning air conditioning unit, fixing a freezer drawer that wouldn't close properly, etc. - all things that should have been dealt with before we moved in.

The apartment was furnished in what I'd describe as a post-collegiate style. The beds were pretty comfortable, but there was insufficient lighting (only nightstand lights in the bedroom??) and the kitchen was not especially well-equipped. I've stayed in a lot of AirBnb and VRBO apartments all over the world and this was one was clearly outfitted on the cheap (lots of Amazon Basics stuff).

Two weeks or so before our lease was up, our contractor told us that the work in our apartment would take longer than anticipated (no surprise there!), and I asked Blueground if we could extend by a month. Sure, they said, if we'd pay double our rent. When questioned I was told it was simply "market fluctuation." Never mind that tourism has declined in NYC. This was gauging, pure and simple. Needless to say, we declined to pay double what was already a ridiculous amount and found a place from a rival company in a better neighborhood for far less. (If only we'd gone with that other company first!) So I would advise anyone looking for a short-term rental to avoid Blueground. To pay the kind of prices they are charging (not to mention the surprise fees) and to have such awful customer service left me feeling pretty outraged.

And in response to Blueground's reply: No. I submitted another ticket through the "Client Experience Team" on the app -- with photos of damage to the apartment -- and that took a week to get a reply. That combined with the fact that the person I spoke with on the phone about the keys never got back to me as promised (nor did he tell me to use the app) made me decide to go directly to building staff instead of dealing with the crappy "Client Experience" Blueground provides. One key was provided, not two. And the guy I spoke with on the phone never said anything about two keys. Considering the exorbitant rent, you'd think the apartment would be furnished more fully and with better quality. Also, it would have been nice to have your team fix the non-functioning air conditioning in one bedroom, etc. So, yeah. I stand by my one-star rating. This ain't my first time at the...

I had an extremely disappointing and concerning experience with this company. I was charged $7,400 for a unit I never occupied. I cancelled within 24 hours of booking, under the impression that the platform operated similarly to Airbnb. Despite no services being rendered and no contract ever sent to me, I was only offered a partial refund of $1,000 by someone named Niko.

I’ve made multiple attempts to resolve this issue amicably, but the lack of transparency and unwillingness to provide a full refund have raised serious red flags about the legitimacy of this business. This is a fraudulent business and please do NOT believe anything you see on their website or Instagram. There are plenty of Reddit threads and other sites online where people are sharing their experience with this platform and simply put Blueground is fraud. You are better off doing Airbnb, Vrbo or a hotel, but avoid this company at all costs as it is a SCAM.

Given I can't leave multiple reviews, I am replying to Blueground below here:

I cancelled my reservation within 24-48 hours, never received or signed a contract, never occupied the unit, and no services were rendered. Despite this, I was charged $7,400, with only a partial refund of $1,000. Most egregiously, the $4,500 “service fee”—which was not clearly stated as non-refundable—was kept, despite no services being provided whatsoever.

Your platform positions itself similarly to Airbnb, which allows free cancellation within 24–48 hours. I acted within that timeframe. However your Terms & Conditions were not clearly disclosed in a separate or prominent way just a check of the box, and no contract was ever issued or signed to complete the reservation. This was clearly a preliminary booking, not a finalized agreement as you required me to submit further payment to fully reserve.

On top of that, I had to email four times just to receive a response, and my WhatsApp messages—where your platform encourages users to communicate—were completely ignored, even after raising serious concerns. That level of disregard for customer support is simply unacceptable.

My booking was for a property in London, and under UK consumer protection law, consumers are entitled to a 14-day cancellation window for a full refund if no services have been rendered. The fact that you are refusing to refund the $4,500 service fee despite no value being delivered is not just unethical—it may be a clear violation of UK law.

Frankly, I wish I had trusted all the Reddit reviews I saw beforehand, which flagged Blueground as fraudulent. Now, I feel obligated to do my part and warn others not to fall into the same trap. There are numerous reports from others who say their units were dirty, or that they never received their security deposits back. Sadly, my experience only confirms those warnings.

This is not how a legitimate business behaves. This is fraud, and you cannot continue to treat customers like this. I am once again demanding a full refund of the $4,500 service fee, and urging anyone considering Blueground to avoid this service...